About the Book
Jack Murphy and his family need a vacation. This one might just kill them.
After a global crisis causes crops to fail and species to disappear, something even more deadly happens. Masses around the world suddenly become predators, feeding off their own kind. These "Can Heads" grow to such a threat that fences, gated compounds, and SWAT-style police protection become absolutely necessary to live.
After one attack leaves NYPD cop Jack Murphy wounded and his partner dead, Jack takes his wife and kids on a vacation far up north, to the Paterville Family Camp, a fortress-like compound in the mountains where families can still swim and take boats out on a lake.
At first, it's idyllic. There's plenty of food, fun stuff for their children, and another nice young couple with kids of their own. And when the camp suffers a Can Head attack, Jack even helps defend it. He's immediately offered a job in security. His family wants to stay.
But Jack slowly comes to realize that there's something else going on at Paterville Family Camp, and when he makes a gruesome discovery, he will be forced to get his family out, no matter who--or what--stands in his way.
About the Author :
Matt Costello's award-winning and bestselling work--across all media--has meshed story, gameplay and technology.
His novels, spanning genres, have been published all around the world. His classic horror novel, Beneath Still Waters, was filmed by Lionsgate. His novel Vacation was a major release from Macmillan, who also released the sequel, Home, as well as his epic SF novel, Star Road.
He cocreated and coauthors, with Neil Richards, the hit mystery series Cherringham, which has sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide. With Neil Dudgeon (Midsomer Murders) reading, the series has become a bestselling audio series, also with over 700,000 sales. Cherringham has also been sold globally, in many languages. His latest series with Neil Richards, set in 1929--Mydworth Mysteries--has also quickly become a bestseller, with Wolf Hall actor Nathaniel Parker performing the audiobooks.
He has also written and designed dozens of award-winning and bestselling games including The 7th Guest, G-Force, Aladdin, Just Cause 1&2, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Time magazine said of Doom 3, which he scripted, "The story is delivered with unusual art." Rage, which Matt also wrote, won the most Game Critics Awards at E3, including Best Console Game'. He continues to write and help create groundbreaking games worldwide, most recently the interactive film Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier. This March brought the release of Resident Evil 4 2023, one of the most anticipated games of the year, scripted by Matt, which sold 4 million copies in its first two weeks.
Matt has also written episodes and created TV formats for PBS, Disney, SyFy, and the BBC. He consults on story, creativity, games and multiplatform projects around the world.
Peter Macon is an Emmy Award-winning actor. He has spent three seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and has had roles in various films and television shows, including Dexter, Law & Order, Without a Trace, Supernatural, and The Shield.
Review :
"Costello takes a typical family and throws them headfirst into a situation that's anything but. What would you do to protect those you love at the end of the world? A thrilling, fast-paced story of priorities, secrets, and survival."
-- "David Moody, author of Hater"
"I absolutely devoured Vacation by Matthew Costello. It's dark, subversive, deeply disturbing, and absolutely compelling."
-- "Jonathan Maberry, Stoker Award-winning author"
"Matt Costello's work has always been impressive, but Vacation is just flat-out amazing. Truly epic in scope, this astounding science fiction / horror hybrid has 'soon to be a major motion picture' written all over it."
-- "Bentley Little, Stoker Award-winning author"
"Unstoppable...undeniable...un-put-down-able...Matthew Costello's Vacation is a hybrid horror/action/SF classic! Working at the height of his powers, Costello crafts a lean, terse, terrifying juggernaut of a book, which blends the minimalist punch of James Ellroy with the ravenous blitzkrieg of Danny Boyle's fleet-footed zombies in 28 Days Later. Set aside several uninterrupted hours, because once you crack this open you're going to be sprinting breathlessly to the last page. Highest recommendation!"
-- "Jay Bonansinga, national bestselling coauthor of The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor"
"Costello is a master at lean, swift pacing. I read this book in three big gulps. And had life not intruded I'd have swallowed it whole."
-- "Jack Ketchum, award-winning horror author"
"Costello sets up a world simultaneously threatened with constant surveillance and complete societal breakdowns, foreshadowing the camp scenes nicely with a suspenseful and frightening 'rest' stop on an electric fence-enclosed highway."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
